THE NEW YOR.KER. changes far less than aluminum, and is also lighter. No decision about using this can yet be made, however, for this composite has not been tested in space for more than short periods. In 19 5, a beam builder-probably using a graphite-resin composite- may be sent up for a test run in the or- biter; the orbiter will be tilted upright to extrude a girder out of the cargo bay. With luck, enough girders will be made so that astronauts can assemble a small square platform; if they can do this, NASA feels, they can surely assemble structures of any size, includ- ing big solar arrays. The first primi- tive platform-a bare framework- need not go to waste, either, for sev- eral different satellites or antennas could be attached to it, so that they could share such services as guidance control and communications, which are expensive; indeed, NASA intends to use this principle on a larger scale in the future. Before astronauts can make any- thing much bigger, they will have to build at the construction site a work- ing platform or base to hold in place whatever is being built. On earth, construction men don't have to worry about the possibility that whatever they are building-a house, a highway overpass-might float away. The easi- est way to provide the working plat- form might be to send up into space the external tanks from a couple of shuttles. These are normally jettisoned just before the orbiter reaches orbit. With a little extra fuel, they, too, could reach orbit, and a pair of them could be fastened together to make a working platform more than a hun- dred yards long, which could be hitched on to the end of the workshop module, so that the entire construction si te would make along, thin train. Before leaving the ground, the exter- nal tanks would have been fitted out for their new job; for instance, there might be latches for attaching beam builders, and there might also be a track running along the length of the tanks. The track would be for a sort of derrick on wheels called a cherry picker, which, like the beam builder, is to be a key piece of construction egui p- ment in space; it is to be a mobile, im- proved version of the workshop's pres- surized bubble with its two manipula- tor arms. The cherry picker is named for the kind of crane that on earth has a bucket at the top in which a man can stand not only to pick cherries but to saw limbs off trees or change bulbs in street lights. Similarly, in space the 85 \\- - . ) . \ \ """,'" ", e ", ""'" -'(O-o\. ""'" <\ e' ", . c.. . <,\0 \. ", \. \.\...1O ...... ...... ...... O\\.' 'l e{\ e e t'1 "i:-.- \ e":f .................. fò'Þ'l( " , W o{\C C co'Q ' ", \.0 i\,).\. 'I'" \).\. \\.ee o\. ...... ...... -:- 1'" 'ò-'l 0 ""e'ò- ov. <'\o""':\). ""'" JJ- C60 \. co"\,). e 0 ","' ' \.o{\.' l e \. eo{\.e ", .A.1 \.C6 {\. 0. \). e {\. ",'" . S\.0\.1 CO \. C6e \\. \. . C60 ""'" \.\.C. e 'V '^ c'(\.\: vJ ",""'" 0'{O-?;- 1.- (\' \i' '0 00 \\Je. \ \.. ...... ...... ...... vJ\).o\e 'ò \ '(O- . "'l- \(). s 0"" ov. \0 V '161" 1>,\1 ,,\\).e \'(ee . :(\.e\. \. C6'ð- O {\-\.\. . \. s ,s C "" ov.; 'ò-C'ò-'l\ {ovJ co vJ ""\ " * þ ,,, \ ,, eS {\.o. \. ., \. o C6\.e \. s v i- \'B s Ò. o &. 'oe &-e\ :r,.s, \,\1-ÞÞ o e es .o'v,. c C6 '\.o \. '^ \, <'\ '{O- _ 1\.\.\). \.ee\' c \)e -t' e}.... e 'l'" . d 3 _...1' \\.e . . \.\.{\.'y, 0" Cv.-\.S e C\ \"\,).C6 \ , \ , The chair is Louis sezze, the fabric is Brunsch'U 1 ig j\ '\ \ \ '\ -, V} '::::: ::: e - ';; ! '1nschvzc a rz1s, IDC. ::::i Ü e::: :E 410 East 62 Street. New York. N.Y 10021 . Through decorators and fme stores